Rage Against The Exploding Barrel

In the year 1981 a decision was made which would forever alter the face of video games as we know them. A young gorilla named Donkey Kong was throwing wooden barrels at a spunky little plumber named Mario. What happened next influenced the level design and gameplay of most FPS and adventure games since.

[Angrymorgan]

Lol

[kazuma999]

Mythbusters has proven shooting at it will do nothing :O XD but laura croft had a good idea with the bow on fire.

[Kr155]

He's talking about games where you single handedly wipe out platoons of enemy soldiers like a walking tank, and he's worried that exploding barrels defy logic?

[randomass171]

Hey man, vidya games are serious bizniss. :P

[Stapleface]

I do hate getting killed by exploding barrels in BF4, at the same time I find myself laughing at it a little every time it happens. Classic.. I think to myself.

[randomass171]

Same thing happened to me whenever I played Doom. Good times. :)

[TitanUp]

i love when enemies stand next to a barrel especially if the game has a high level of gore.

im fine with the exploding barrel i dont care if it would happen in real life or not its a game i dont want everything super realistic.

[purp13m0nk3y]

I agree with your second point. There are so many ridiculous unrealistic things going on in modern shooters to get hung up on "exploding barrels".

How about your soldier being able to sprint non stop for half a click, all the while caring a LMG, 600 rounds of ammo, a rocket launcher, a side arm, full webbing and pack, gadgets!

Or the fact that bullet wounds miraculously heal if you 'stay in cover' for a bit. Or the fact that your weapon NEVER jams or misfires. Or that your solder is some sort of Jedi/Ninja hybrid that can head shot people from several hundred yards with a 9mm pistol.

I could go on and on. And this guy is worried about barrels that explode unrealistically. Wow. Dude really has a problem with the ol barrel.

If games were ultra realistic they really wouldn't be much fun would they? I mean isn't the point of playing games that you can experience things that would be impossible in reality. Or in the example of a shooter, hazardous to your being, you know, not dead?

I would welcome some more realistic ballistics and accuracy (think the "Stalker" series of games). But most unrealistic things that devs put into games are there to create fun gameplay opportunities or allow for fun gameplay mechanics.

The whole regenerative health thing was one of the best things to happen to gaming. While healing and health packs have their place (RPGs like TES and Fallout) for example wouldn't feel right if your health just regenerated in a few seconds. But for FPS, TPS and the like. It just makes the gameplay feel much more fluid and dynamic. You find yourself taking more risks if you know you can just duck for cover if your getting your ass handed to you. Wait a few seconds. Then back in the frey.

[Matt666]

I agree with you on some things but for the whole healing thing a head shot should always be one shot kill and they should make it more realistic like if you get shot in the leg it's going to slow you down or if you get shot in the arm it going to reduce your accuracy.

I think the regenerating health encourages some people just to camp all the time so they don't get killed themselves but get easy kills while people come into the room etc.

[purp13m0nk3y]

The exploding barrel is a FPS staple. Along with crates, it just wouldn't be the same without them. Many games make variations to the barrel. But I'm having trouble thinking of a shooter that doesn't have some sort of "container" that explodes to devastating results.

I just finished a play through of Second Son (goody two shoes this time round) and while there were no exploding barrels the ammo crates were their spiritual equivalent. Extremely handy for taking down some of the tougher baddies.

I can't see devs ever not including some sort of "exploding barrel" equivalent in shooters. They just offer too many gameplay opportunities for such a simple mechanic.

[randomass171]

Can't imagine a heavily action oriented shooter not having exploding barrels. It's like Mario with no mushrooms. Or Crash with no spinning.

[MasterD919]

Hey- something has to blow up, right?